That should keep me busy for a while. As new topics come to mind, I’ll add them to the list and eventually get to all of them.

Back in the 1980's, in high school, I think it was, I purchased a Canon LC-27 pocket calculator for a couple bucks. That was around thirty five years ago and I still have the calculator now. In fact, it sits on my desk at work, beside my keyboard and I use it nearly every day in my job as a producer. Now here's the weird part; in the thirty five or so years since I have owned this calculator, I have never once opened it or changed the original battery that powers it. For the last fifteen years I have been mildly freaked out thinking about how a small, 1.5 volt calculator battery (there is a diagram of it on the back of the device, that's how I know) can last so long.

A short review of a long book.

Cryptonomicon is a complex, highly researched and incredibly detailed novel about cryptography, hacking, big brother, an internet data haven, a lost gold treasure and so much more. Stephenson’s plot is as complex as any I have read and at 900 plus pages, as detailed, too. It basically involves the idea of making the world a better place through highly encrypted, surveillance proof data sharing and communication in a completely anonymous, secure and big-brother-free electronic economy. Crytonomicon, in a sense, is a hacker’s utopia novel.

I first saw this film in 1973 when I was nine years old. I saw it only once, but the movie stuck in my head like glue. I remembered every detail, including the catchy whistling tune that so perfectly encapsulated the tone of the film.